ALVEOLAR-ARTERIAL OXYGEN GRADIENT IN ACUTE PULMONARY-EMBOLISM IN PREGNANCY

OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to determine the prevalence of normal alveolar -arterial gradients in pregnant patients with documented pulmonary emb olism. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective chart review was performed on all pregnant women with pulmonary embolism at two large obstetric centers between 1990 and 1995. Alveolar-arterial gradients were calculated fr om room air arterial blood gas values and compared with values from pa tients who had been established as normal. RESULTS: Ten of 17 patients with pulmonary embolism identified had alveolar-arterial gradients th at were normal. CONCLUSIONS: In our study 58% of pregnant women with d ocumented pulmonary embolism had a normal alveolar-arterial gradient. This markedly differs from the published data in nonpregnant patients, in which the incidence of normal alveolar-arterial gradients in pulmo nary embolism has ranged from 1.9% to 20%. This suggests that the alve olar-arterial gradient should not be used to determine the likelihood of pulmonary embolism in pregnant women because this could lead to the withholding of appropriate treatment for this life-threatening condit ion.